Real books Vs Kindle: THE DEBATE!...

From what I’ve read so far, a bit of a theme has developed with this QotW…and that is the argument of ‘Tradition Vs Technology’. I would therefore like to host a forum on the fact (only I can’t really be arsed to do it properly). So, I offer my own opinion, and will leave it to other, more intelligent folk, to deliberate over which is best, and why (if they feel so compelled)…:

KINDLE: Small, convenient, technologically decent, practical, they even have a few tasty girls in the advert. Yet SOULLESS. Yes, you can show them off to your friends…but they don’t make you look ‘well read’ when they’re on a shelf, do they? (Thanks to A Vagabond for that)

BOOKS: Bulky, lumpy, impractical, pricey, grubby, erm…. but they’re bloody LOVEABLE...aren't they?

Help me out here…
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:28, 29 replies)

Books make a nice smell when burning.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:31, closed)

Another excellent point...

and it beats the hell out of my next argument that: 'It's more difficult to wipe your arse with a Kindle'
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:34, closed)

kindles are fine, if you like technology.
if, however, you're a clumsy hamfisted fuckwit povvo like me, kindles are damned expensive and impractical, especially when you break them. books are fine, but finding them in large print means finding larger books, which are even heavier and bulkier.
in short, i'd say it's pretty much down to personal choice. fuck soul, you're meant to lose yourself in the story, not the thing it's written on.
( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:32, closed)

That's beautiful...

:)
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:33, closed)

oh, i like that last sentence there

( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:33, closed)

I wish books were like cd's
If I choose to get the real version, I also get a digital version gratas.

Why's it not like that currently?
(skgorsky, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:34, closed)

i'm not big on technology, i don't even own an ipod
i'd rather have a book in my hand, but i appreciate thinks like ebooks, many of my favorite authors do short stories that are only available to read on kindle, or nook, so if you don't have one, or at least the program for your computer you can't read them.
( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:35, closed)

I must admit...

I have previously mentioned 'The Lost Symbol' on here...but due to getting it on Ebook, I managed to read it surreptitiously at work, which means I was kind of 'paid' to read it...which almost takes the sting out of how utter dogshit it was.
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:40, closed)

Thank fcku
...that someone else thought that pile of tree-wasting shite was bloody awful too. It's one of the few books I've picked up and haven't finished. The writing was terrible (like most of his to be honest) and the story was shite (unlike the other 3-4). Others that I know who have read this proclaim it to be the best thing ever written.
(dchurch bah, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 20:07, closed)

the thing people forget is, that you can have both.
i have a kindle, and yet i bought two books yesterday. imagine that.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:37, closed)

oh i bet you just like to have your cake and eat it too eh
the nerve of some people
( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:38, closed)

god, i know.
i hate myself so fucking much right now.
( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:53, closed)

Not as much as everybody else does.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:27, closed)

oh man, the BURN.

( janet aylia y'all motherfuckers need jesus, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:31, closed)

One thing that makes me ponder...
...some people say that ebooks are "killing" proper books, and they'd much rather buy a cheap second hand book than a digital version.

But surely buying a cheap digital version over a second hand version would mean the author would actually then get paid money? Authors don't receive any money for sales of second hand books, so does this not mean that authors do better out of digital sales?

I admit this argument isn't water tight, but surely there's some truth in it?
( Mike Fishcake teamfishcake.co.uk - better than your mum's face, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:39, closed)

I'm going to sit on the fence on this one...
...I bought chickenlady a Kindle for xmas and she absolutely adores it, but she would agree that there is certain tactile pleasure about turning the pages of a old, well bound book (and I'm not referring to a pre-1979 copy of Playbirds magazine here). Old books smell better than new ones anyway (unless you're talking about a superannuated, pre-1979 copy of Playbirds magazine which has spent the last 32 years in a builders' lav and is thus best avoided).

Just because we now have CDs and MP3s it doesn't mean that no-one collects vinyl anymore.
(Bicycle Repairman "you're also a bit of a wanker", Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:46, closed)

Good point, well made...

and don't forget that I still want back my copy of the 'superannuated, pre-1979 Playbirds magazine which had spent the last 32 years in a builders' lav'...

I lent it to you 5 years ago ffs!

p.s don't worry about wiping it down before returning it :)
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:52, closed)

No one will steal my tatty old used book if I leave it on a train
Plus, if I do, I can probably pick up another of the same copy at a charity shop for pocket change. I'm a very fast reader, but even I'm not that impressed with a device which offers you dozens, if not hundreds, of e-'books' at a time; doesn't mean you read fast, just means you might have trouble paying attention to any one thing for more than a short while.

Also, as a collector of Victorian, Edwardian and WWI manuscripts, a Kindle does nothing for me since I own the only existing copy of some of my most treasured books.
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:50, closed)

I like to read in the bath
Is there a waterproof version of the kindle? I think not.

Case closed.
( rofl harris, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:02, closed)

Hmm Interesting...

Now if if you'll excuse me I'm going to stick a Kindle in a plastic bag and bugger off to Dragons' Den
( Pooflake braces for an onslaught..., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:08, closed)

You can buy waterproof cases for them.
Case reopened?
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:08, closed)

ye gods
They've thought of everything.
( rofl harris, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:15, closed)

I just coat mine with goose fat.

( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:17, closed)

... but what about the Kindle?

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:28, closed)

Kindle! It's the future.... Today.
My wife devours an insane number of books whilst on holiday. So much so that 1/2 her suitcase is full of books.

Not this year, all our clothes fitted in hand luggage. Full library of Terry Pratchett, Lee Child and The entire back catalog of my favourite authors works loaded up on the Kindle ftw.

..and yes, we do own them all in paperback too so I didn't feel a teensy bit guilty about downloading all the electronic versions. Even though it is still naughty.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:12, closed)

I read all my books on vinyl with a vacuum tube amplifier.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:29, closed)

We were discussing this in a seminar the other day
and my lecturer mentioned his mother (who I should think would be in her seventies or eighties) adores her kindle and finds it indispensable. On the other hand, he's noticed that the young generation of students are totally 'hard copy', and prefer pen and paper.

I agree totally with him - as an English Lit student, I just can't see the Kindle or whatever as a study aid. I like to have my physical copy, with all my barely legible annotations next to my text. There's something reassuring about a book's physicality.

That's not to say I'm a technophobe or that the Kindle and it's ilk aren't really useful devices, but they're targeted at the kind of people who take more books than clothes with them on holiday I suppose.
( Bats, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:47, closed)

Both have there pluses & minuses
For me I have got a tablet and I love it, I will admit I don't one book at once I read multiple books.

So having a tablet is a great place to store them and Amozon have made the whole process of downloading and installing the books very easy.

That said I do miss the whole tactile sensation of reading a book and the new smell you get!!!

but its personal choice and I could not be without the books and magazines on my tablet now!!
( discobunnywalker, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 19:45, closed)

Apert from the mugging and losing
There's a huge potential for abuse. Stalin would have loved all creative outpouring to only have a virtual existence. Small incremental changes and fallible human memory (Fahrenheit 452 aside) and it's all up for grabs.

Baudrillard may have had a point
(unclestinky, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 22:16, closed)